TYPE 140 pilot and the radio operator behind the navigator and controlling the ventral turret. The optical sighting was derived from that of the Tu-4, and in emergency either gunner could manage both turrets. Full armour was restored. The capacious bomb bay had electrically driven doors and could accommodate various loads up to 4,500kg (9,921 Ib). The fuel system was completely redesigned, with tanks along the top of the fuselage. The 140 suffered from malfunction of the fuel-metering unit on the AM-TKRD-01 engines, which caused engine speed to fluctuate erratically in a way that the pilot could not control, and which could lead to dangerously asymmetric power. After Flight 7 the engines were changed, and OKB-1 flight testing was completed on 24th May 1949.
Type 140R To achieve the necessary range, this aircraft was (the Soviet record states) fitted with 'newer, more economical' VK-1 engines derived by V Ya Klimov from the Rolls-Royce Nene, even though these were rated at only 2,700kg (5,952 Ib). The span was increased, and fixed tanks were added on the wingtips, increasing internal fuel capacity to 14,000 litres (3,080 Imperial gallons). The former bomb bay was redesigned to carry a wide assortment of reconnaissance cameras, as well as high-power flares and flash bombs in the forward bay and in the fuselage tail. Type 140B/R Never completed, this aircraft was intended to have an improved fire control system, the
crew reduced to three, and to have a range of 3,000km (1,864 miles) at 12,000m (39,370ft) carrying 1.5 tonnes (3,3071b) of bombs and 9,400 litres (2,068 Imperial gallons) of fuel. Always handicapped politically by their ancestry, these aircraft were merely an insurance against failure of the first Soviet jet bombers such as Ilyushin's IL-22 and Tupolev's Tu-12. They were finally killed by inability to solve the structural problems of the forwardswept wing.
Dimensions (Type 140R) Span Length Wing area
21.9m 19.8m 59.1 nf
Weights Not recorded Performance Max speed (measured) 866km/h Range at a cruising altitude of 14, 100m (46,260ft) 3,600 km
Left: 140B/RwithAM-01 engines.
140B/RwithAM-01 engines
222
71 ft 1014 in 64 ft 11)4 in 636ft 2
538mph 2,237 miles